Murder suspect now charged with child rape, too

ARLINGTON — Prosecutors have filed child rape charges against a man already accused of killing his girlfriend during a dispute in April.Arlington police detectives were investigating the shooting death of Jessica Jones when they allegedly uncovered evidence that the suspect, Daniel Rinker, 25, was having a sexual relationship with an underage girl. The girl reportedly told detectives the two had sex on multiple occasions, including after Jones, 25, was shot.Prosecutors allege that last year Rinker told the girl, then 13, to get an abortion when she told him that she might be pregnant. He advised her to drink bleach and Pepto Bismol, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Elise Deschenes wrote in charging papers.The Sept. 9 conversation happened while Rinker was in jail. Inmate phone calls are recorded and a detective obtained a copy of a conversation during his investigation into the homicide.Prosecutors this week charged Rinker with two counts of second-degree rape of a child. He already is charged with second-degree murder. Rinker, a convicted felon, faces decades behind bars if he is convicted.Jones, of Tulalip, was found with a gunshot wound to the head April 8 inside a garage in the 6800 block of 188th Street NE. She and Rinker had been living together with his grandparents, court papers said. She died the next day.Witnesses told detectives that Rinker had threatened to shoot Jones in the past. They also said that Rinker threatened to kill anyone who called him a pedophile. Police found evidence that Jones may have learned that Rinker was somehow involved with an underage girl. Rinker first told police that Jones was the victim of a drive-by shooting. He said he was upstairs when she was shot. He denied that the two had been arguing.Investigators found holes in his story, and Rinker became a suspect earlier on, court papers said.Neighbors told detectives they had heard yelling from the garage followed by a single gunshot. They said they saw Rinker run from the garage and toss something into a nearby field. The revolver appeared to be the same gun Rinker was holding in a picture posted on Facebook, court papers said.Rinker’s Facebook page also allegedly tipped cops off to his relationship with the teenage girl. The detective discovered what appeared to be a romantic conversation between the two.Rinker was arrested May 5 for the homicide.The next day police learned that the teenage girl was a runaway and possibly staying with Rinker’s grandparents. Officers found the girl there and placed her into protective custody.She initially denied having a sexual relationship with the Rinker but later admitted that they were sexually involved, Deschenes wrote.The Arlington detective obtained recorded phone conversations between Rinker and the girl when he was in jail last year. The girl indicated that she might be pregnant and “was going to take a test.” Rinker allegedly told the girl that if she was pregnant he would get in trouble and would “go for a long time” if she kept the child. He told her to have an abortion, Deschenes wrote.Since his arrest in May Rinker has arranged a three-way phone calls with his grandparents and spoke with the girl. She told him she was pregnant. He asked her to take care of the baby and told her to eat, Deschenes wrote.Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463, hefley@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @dianahefley.

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